If overlanders want to store for a longer time in South America they usually go to Uruguay (1 year without restrictions or Argentina (8 month, but take care, some border crossings give 3 months only. However, Peru is probably the only country in South America where you can leave your vehicle for an unlimited period of time, provided that you have the right paperwork. Citizens of the European Community can leave their vehicle in French Guiana without any restrictions, but that is about it.

We wanted to leave our car behind for about a month while we flew home for Christmas. Although we nevertheless expected to leave Peru with the car within the TIP period of three months we decided to go for a TIP suspension. The formal penalty in Peru for overstaying is confiscation of the vehicle. We weren't able to get any more concrete data on the real penalty and we learned from a motorcycle owner that his bike is in custody for 2 years now without a concrete procedure to get it out, because he overstayed 13 hours. We decided not to take the risk of being too late for whatever reason. As soon as the TIP suspension is approved the 90-days counter stops. When the TIP suspension cancellation is approved the counter starts again. Of course you are not allowed to drive the vehicle while the TIP is suspended.

If you aren't fluent in Spanish or know exactly who has to do what at which place it will be a nightmare to get everything arranged in a reasonable time without support from a local. We wanted to leave the car in Lima had tremendous help from the travel agency Xplore Peru 4x4. The main business of Xplore Peru 4x4 is organizing off-road trips in Peru, but they also help with storage and repair of vehicles. Ask for Ernesto - ernesto@xploreperu4x4.com. ​ If you want to leave your vehicle in Cuzco campsite Quinta Lala is a good option. Milli will help you there. Because the border crossing where you entered the country plays an important role in the procedure it is convenient if you have the opportunity to leave the car close to this border crossing. See more experiences from other travelers on Facebook - see for example the comments of Zwemmer Langerei. As often neither Police nor Customs are familiar with the procedure (and don't like you to tell them what they have to do) implementation of the procedure differs from place to place. The formal procedure can be found on the SUNAT website and here (Internamiento temporal vehículos). At the site you can also check progress of your application (consulta de expediente).

Below is a description of the process. After entering Peru and getting a TIP the whole process has 3 phases:

Applying for the suspension of the TIP;

Canceling the TIP suspension;

Leaving Peru with the vehicle.

Applying for the suspensionThe following steps need to be taken:

Find a suitable storage location. Ernesto helped us here and offered the choice between a more expensive place in Lima and a cheaper one some 40 km outside;

Go to the police station closest to the storage location and request police to come over to the storage location to carry out an inspection a generate a statement (example). Note that from now on you formally aren't allowed to drive the vehicle anymore;

Collect a validated copy of the statement from any police station, usually the next day;

Make copies of the vehicle ownership document, the owner's passport and the suspension request;

Go to a suitable SENAT office and hand in;- The request document with copy;- The police statement;- Part 2 of the TIP that you got when you entered the country;​- Copies of the ownership document and passport.

The copy of the request document will be stamped and provided with a file number. We used this file number to track progress of the procedure via the internet (www.sunat.gob.pe). The request will be sent by regular mail to the border station where the vehicle entered Peru. In our case a took nearly a month for this part of the process to be completed, but you can leave Peru as soon as you have handed in the paperwork.

Go to a suitable SENAT office and hand in the cancellation request with a copy of the suspension request and the original TIP.

The copy of the document is stamped and provided with a new file number, similar to the suspension request. requests made in Lima are again sent by regular mail to the border post of entry and processed there. An updated TIP will be sent back. We have understood that the procedure in Cuzco cam be completed locally, i.e. without sending documents to the border station.

Processing the cancellation request including sending documents by regular mail can be a time consuming process. As we intended to leave Peru prior to the expected completion of the cancellation Ernesto took special action to speed the process up:

He arranged that it was accepted to process documents sent by email to the border post and that an approval document was emailed to us. This happened within a week after we submitted the cancellation request

The border post of departure was pre-informed about our arrival and contact information of the border post of entry was obtained

Leaving the country with the vehicleWith all preparations in place it took no more than 20 min. to complete processing at SUNAT at the border